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Living Without Rules
by Wayne Dyer
18th
Verse
When the
greatness of the Tao is present,
action arises from one’s own heart.
When the greatness of the Tao is absent,
action comes from the rules
of “kindness and justice.”
If you need rules to be kind and just,
if you act virtuous,
this is a sure sign that virtue is absent.
Thus we see the great hypocrisy.
When kinship falls into discord,
piety and rites of devotion arise.
When the country falls into chaos,
official loyalists will appear;
patriotism is born.
Picture yourself in a
world where rules and laws don’t exist, where everyone lives peacefully
and harmoniously. There’s no anarchy, thievery, hatred or war; people
simply live, work, love and play without needing to be governed. Can you
imagine a planet where the need for codes of conduct and edicts to
govern the populace are simply unnecessary? This is the sort of
idealistic mental meandering that led Lao-tzu to create this 18th verse
of the Tao Te Ching, in which he’s clearly stating that you don’t need
rules to be kind and just.
I’m suggesting that when
you change the way you look at the underlying reason for regulation, the
organizations controlling society, politics and the criminal-justice
system will eventually change. (Need I add “for the better?”) When you
alter your viewpoint to a Tao-oriented one, you cease to see your
dominant reason for being and doing as being dictated by your nation,
city, school, religion or even your condominium association. Laws or
rules are seen by many as solely responsible for effective kindness,
justice and love – but you can choose to live from your heart, viewing
these virtues as individual responsibilities that you adhere to without
a statute or convention telling you to. This is what I mean by living
without rules: You can choose to see yourself in harmony with the
regulations and laws of your business, government, family and religion
rather than because of them. I promise you that when you adjust
rule-based thinking to a heart-based attitude, your life will change.
In the Tao orientation,
unlimited joy, kindness, abundance and well-being flow through all;
seeing life in this way makes rules irrelevant. You can act in
accordance with this munificence and beneficence, which are the essence
of the Tao. Make love the bedrock of your family’s motivation to be
loving, rather than just feeling obligated to be kind to others. This
doesn’t mean there isn’t certain etiquette or behavior to follow – it
means that the reason to do so is so that love and kindness flow through
all individuals. And if there is any “crime,” it’s the stopping or
hindering of that energy of the Tao.
You and your children can
learn to change the way you look at edicts and laws. When harmony is
lost, a rule may seem to be helpful, but make sure everyone in the
family realizes that you’re inviting them to learn to live without it!
The existence of codes of conduct are proof that we aren’t allowing the
Tao to flow freely through our lives. Learning that it is each
individual’s personal responsibility to live without governing will
ultimately demonstrate that when you change your thoughts, you change
your life.
This idea extends further:
Ask yourself if laws create a healthy society and if patriotism is
valuable. Or does it appear that when a country has fallen into chaos or
some form of civil war, laws and codes concerning patriotism seem to
need to be enforced? Rules are created to impose penalties to control or
govern people who haven’t learned their individual responsibility as a
part of the wholeness of the group. Yet a national sense of unity
needn’t regulate a universal sense, for the Tao oneness is greater than
any group on Earth.
So here we have a summary
of what takes place when the Great Way is deserted: The need for justice
arises. Falsity among the people creates a need for rules and rulers are
needed to restore order. Political ministers appear to bring light to
the disorder and darkness. Knowing all of this, I believe it’s essential
to get back to that picture I asked you to envision a few paragraphs ago
and apply what Lao-tzu is saying in this profound verse of the Tao Te
Ching:
LET YOUR ACTIONS
ARISE FROM YOUR TAO-CENTERED HEART
When you’re centered in
the Tao, you don’t need any rules, nor are you bound by what’s declared
to be legal or illegal. Your reason for not stealing from others isn’t
because it’s against the law; rather, you assume personal responsibility
for your actions. Your life isn’t based on living by rules; your reason
for not stealing is that you respect the rights of others to be free
from pilfering because it resonates with the Tao. In the Tao there is no
stealing because everything belongs to everyone. There is no ownership
of land or property – there is only the willingness to love and respect
everyone and all things. The laws making stealing, maiming or fighting
illegal arose because of disconnection from the Tao.
DON'T ACT
VIRTUOUS - BE VIRTUE
Acting virtuous is not the
same as being virtuous, so the Tao instructs you to be authentic in all
of your interactions. Be pious because your own heart feels the piety
that is the great Tao. Be spontaneously generous to others because your
inner calling demands it, not because others in their code making have
determined that this is how you should behave. Don’t wait for chaos to
erupt before you are generous and kind to others. A natural disaster may
stimulate your desire to reach out and help your fellow humans – yet if
you change the way you look at that natural disaster, you could also see
it as a reminder to let the Tao be your guiding spirit at all times.
This would inspire your patriotism to be for all of humanity, rather
than confined to the land where you happened to be born.
Again, I’d like to remind
you of the similar sentiment expressed by Hafiz, the great Sufi poet:
Everyone
Is God speaking.
Why not be polite and
Listen to
Him?
And everyone really means
everyone, not just those who are subject to your rules and your laws.
DO THE TAO NOW
Emphasize why you’re
obeying human-made edicts today. Spend some time connecting to the
underlying reason for stopping at a red light, having a driver’s
license, wearing a seat belt, paying to enter a movie theater or not
drinking and driving. See if your ego enjoys “breaking” rules for its
purposes by listing all the rules and laws you obey or disobey in one
day and then identify your most important “heart rules.”
Excerpted from The
Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way
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